United Socialist Peoples Republic of America

[Funder]

 I love this.  All of Wall Street is getting bailed out by the taxpayer.  Why?  Because they have “toxic assets.”  Since we are abandoning free market principals (government bailing out all so called “capitalist business), what this amounts to is that  Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, New York Mellon, Bank of America, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, State Street Bank and Wells Fargo are all being bailed out by the (say it with me) United Socialist Peoples Republic of America.
                        Meanwhile, the people who are paying the debt, which they agreed to pay, are getting to finance all of the irresponsibility that our lazy, inept, thoughtless culture can come up with.
                        A person’s word means nothing to anyone.  The banks promised to pay.  Now they won’t.  The buyers promised to pay.  Now they won’t.  I am not financially ruined because my analysis was flawed.  I am not  financially ruined because strategy was flawed.  I may someday be financially ruined because of all the “needy” people who promised to pay, and now they won’t.
                        So, if I decide to be honest, to be true to my word, to honor my contracts, I lose.  I will have to pay full market value for my assets while banks and deadbeats get a communist discount.  If I go back on my word, if I decide that my signature means nothing, if I decide that I am too weak, ill prepared, too dishonest, then I will be rewarded with the full value of today’s lower market prices.
                        So, not only do I lose as an investor, but guess what?  My revenues are nice and large, so not only do all of the poor, helpless banks get all of my money, but the government gets to take the rest in the form of taxes.  Where do the taxes go?  To finance all of the people and banks who backed out of their financial agreements.
                        I hate every living person who allowed this to happen.  It doesn’t matter how much money you take away from the taxpayer if it’s all going into corrupt policy.  Every person, every bank, every business who backed out of their financial obligations should have the ethics to pay their obligations.  But then, every murderer, every child molester, every rapist should have the ethics to refrain from creating victims, also.  Maybe all of the people who don’t rape, molest children or kill people should be forced to serve the prison time for all of the people who do.
                        But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
                        This country deserves to burn in a day.  I firmly believe that the people who wrote our Declaration of independence would gladly offer a match.
                        Why should I believe in this pathetic excuse for a society?
                        If ever there was a time for Atlas to shrug, it is now.

[Funder]

I made this post while in a state of rage.  I have edited the original post for etiquette, but not spirit.  I feel compelled to make a few clarifications.
First, I love my country.
I applied for my commission as a naval officer when I graduated from college, but I did not serve for reasons that I will not go into.  To this day, I stand by my original intent, which was to serve and defend this country.
This accounts for a large part of my anger.  I cannot control the behavior of the citizens of this country, and acting in bad faith in business contracts in front of the rest of the world not only constitutes a shameful disgrace, it gives this country a bad name.
There is a new trend in my area.  Homeowners are qualifying for a second home, buying at the new discounted rate, then moving into the second home and defaulting on their original home.  What do you suppose that a retiree, in another country, whose income is derived from American debt instruments thinks of this?  Who do you think is paying for this?
All of the banks are pushed either internally or otherwise to produce the highest profit achievable.  So, a common homeowner goes to the bank and says “I can’t pay”,  the bank says “but your 28/2 puts you at an 11% APR…” but the overnight lending APR is 2%.  Will the bank negotiate?  Nope.  They’ll foreclose.  Then they’ll ask the American taxpayer for a bailout.  Please TELL ME I’M WRONG!!!
I can defend the war in Iraq as fighting genocide or tyranny or totalitarian supremacy.  I can defend George W. as a well meaning person without public speaking skills.
But I can’t defend the mortgage fraud perpetrated by these citizens.
I can’t defend the greed or lack of ability displayed by these banks.
Do you think that they will be held accountable?
Or will the rest of the world perceive American citizens as fraudulent, greedy liars?
I typically work at least 70 hours per week, and my financial well being is not as jeopardized as I may have insinuated, but I do live modestly.
Yes, my revenues are “nice and large” but most of them go to the government and the banks.  This is one of the main points.  My tenants drive nicer cars than I do.  Hell, my tenants live in nicer properties than I do.  My move into real estate investment was a bid for freedom, not a bid for luxury.
I do not hate every living person who allowed this to happen.
If you lived in a crime ridden neighborhood, and your children went to bad schools, and you signed up for a mortgage in a good neighborhood, I understand.  If you came from a poverty stricken country, and you signed up for a mortgage in a middle class American neighborhood, I understand.  If you work full time, for minimum wage, at some crap job, and feel like you deserve better and are willing to keep working to get it, GOOD FOR YOU!  That, in my opinion is what prosperity in America should stand for.
But if you are some thankless middle income desk jockey, who just wanted to move up from 1600 square feet to 4600 square feet and have a boat, and have two cars in the driveway the size of the space shuttle, and if the loan screws up well, se la vi! Who cares? 
Then you should sit in jail.
Call me crazy, that’s where I draw my line in the sand, and I imagine that’s where the rest of the watching world draws it’s line in the sand.
And I don’t want to leave this country, I want THOSE DISHONEST PEOPLE to.  I don’t give a crap if you were born in America.
The second to the last paragraph is a direct quote from The Declaration of Independence.  It reminds us that the founding fathers of this country were revolutionaries, not afraid to stand against evil in the name of promoting liberty and prosperity for everyone.  They were also HONORABLE MEN who would not default on a business agreement or overlook the unethical behavior of a greedy, fraudulent crook.
The “burn in a day” quote was obviously figurative.
Rome was another nation that was one of the world’s finest, regulated by a representative republic, There were multiple huge fires in Rome, the largest of which is referred to as the great fire of Rome.
Hence, there is an old expression:
Rome was not built in a day, but it damn sure burned in one.
It can take a lifetime to build a reputation, and a moment to destroy it.
So, not only are we expected to bail out the people with lazy bodies and lazy minds, but we are also beginning to bail out the people with dishonest agendas…. Say it with me America….NOOOO!!!!
All in the name of egalitarian socialism.  There is a quote by one of the founding fathers of this country, by a man who signed the declaration of independence, Thomas Paine:
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." --
If we are to be a great country
(Yes, if)
Then we must defend ourselves against our own most dishonest citizenship.

We have worked for 200 years to make the name “America”  stand for what is right and what is just.
Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Paine, or John Hancock would not default on his loan, NEITHER  SHOULD YOU.

[furnishedowner]

Funder,
Way to go! Great rant. Yes, I am upset too at people walking away from debt and at the sheer greed that put a lot of borrowers there. It seems to be the new McMansion neighborhoods that have the foreclosure signs, not the older, more modest homes that were more affordable.

We went through this all before in the Savings and Loan crash. Wasn't that in the early 80's?  We were told then that it would take a generation to pay off that debt.

The only borrowers I can commiserate with are those losing their homes due to exorbitant health care costs.

My parents would have both worked two jobs to make their rent or mortgage payment.  But they wouldn't have bought a bloated McMansion to begin with.  Are the suburbs going to turn into the new ghettos?

Furnishedowner 

[justin0419]

Are the suburbs going to turn into the new ghettos?

Furnishedowner 

I agree with Funder's points.  As far as your question...  When I was stationed in Jax, FL a few years ago, they were building a new subdivision called Oakleaf Plantation.  I guess I shouldn't say subdivision because they were planning for their own Fire/Police Dept. shopping, etc. out there.  It was supposed to be exclusively larger high dollar homes.  They finished it up after I left.  With Jax having one of the highest amount of foreclosures in the country, this neighborhood almost immediately went downhill.  The people who bought early there expected home values to keep increasing almost exponentially.  After the bubble burst, many people bailed on these houses and the neighborhood was left with numerous houses on each street abandoned w/ 2 ft. high weeds in the yard.  Crime started creeping in out there too.